Mateusz Kaczmarek, Author at TechStock²

How Satellite Internet Is Revolutionizing Disaster Response and Humanitarian Relief

Hurricane Maria in 2017 damaged 95% of cell towers in Puerto Rico, leaving the island largely without phone service. SpaceX’s Starlink uses a low-Earth-orbit (LEO) satellite constellation of hundreds to thousands of satellites, lowering latency to about 20–40 ms with ~600 ms for geostationary satellites. Starlink can deliver 100–200 Mbps per user, versus about 25 Mbps on legacy satellite links. Ground terminals are plug-and-play, roughly pizza-box-sized dishes that require only a power source and a clear view of the sky to connect. In Ukraine since 2022, SpaceX shipped thousands of Starlink terminals, with tens of thousands in operation, becoming essential

4 June 2025

Internet Access in Cameroon: The Race to Connect a Nation

As of early 2025, about 12.4 million Cameroonians were internet users, representing 41.9% of the population. As of 2024, roughly 60% of Cameroonians live in urban areas, with internet access heavily concentrated in cities and rural areas almost inaccessible. Cameroon’s fiber backbone extends over 12,000 kilometers and is connected to five landfall cables: SAT-3, WACS, ACE, SAIL, and NCSCS, with SAIL linking Kribi to Brazil. Plans are underway to add more than 4,000 kilometers of fiber, expanding the backbone to about 17,000–22,000 km and improving regional redundancy. The mobile market is dominated by Orange Cameroon (about 11.7 million subscribers, 39.6%

4 June 2025

Cameroon · Connectivity · Infrastructure · Internet · Technology

When the Grid Goes Dark: How Satellite Phones Keep Us Connected in Emergencies

Iridium operates 66 active LEO satellites in a cross-linked constellation, providing truly global coverage including the poles. Inmarsat uses 3–4 GEO satellites at about 36,000 km altitude to cover most of the globe from roughly 70°N to 70°S, and its IsatPhone 2 offers 8 hours of talk time. Globalstar runs about 48 LEO satellites to provide regional coverage (roughly 50°N to 50°S) with the Globalstar GSP-1700 handset. Thuraya uses two GEO satellites, with Thuraya 4-NGS launched in 2025 to expand service across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and Australia, while it does not cover the Americas. Geostationary satellite networks

4 June 2025

Communication · Connectivity · Disaster Response · Emergencies · NASDAQ:AAPL · NASDAQ:IRDM · NYSE:GSAT · Satellite Phones

Inside the Sky Shield: How Secure Is Your Satellite Internet?

Satellite internet data travels from your dish to a satellite, then to a gateway and onto the internet, with traditional GEO orbits at about 35,786 km and newer systems like SpaceX Starlink using low Earth orbit swarms and inter-satellite laser links. Geostationary (GEO) latency is roughly 500–700 ms for a round trip, while Starlink’s low Earth orbit (LEO) latency is about 20–40 ms, impacting secure handshakes such as TLS. Signals require line-of-sight, and because satellite beams cover broad areas, adversaries can jam or disrupt links from within the footprint with a powerful transmitter. Unencrypted satellite downlinks can be intercepted since

4 June 2025

Cybersecurity · Data Protection · NASDAQ:VSAT · Privacy · Satellite Internet · Security

Satellite vs Fiber Internet: The 2025 Latency & Bandwidth Showdown

Fiber-optic broadband latency is typically a few milliseconds on local networks, with total latency to nearby servers generally in the 10–30 ms range. Geostationary satellites sit about 22,000 miles (35,000 km) above Earth, producing round-trip latencies of roughly 600–650 ms. Starlink uses a low-Earth orbit constellation, delivering typical latencies of about 20–50 ms and, by mid-2025, operating with nearly 7,000 satellites and over 1.4 million active US subscribers. Starlink typical download speeds are 50–150 Mbps (up to 200+ Mbps in ideal conditions) with uploads of 5–20 Mbps. Fiber gigabit plans are widely available, and many providers offer 2 Gbps, 5

4 June 2025

Bandwidth · Fiber Optic · Latency · Satellite Internet · Technology

The Sky Connect: How Satellite Internet Is Revolutionizing Rural and Remote Life

LEO satellites orbit at roughly 500–1,200 km, delivering latency of about 20–50 ms and broadband speeds comparable to terrestrial networks, versus GEO’s ~600 ms latency. SpaceX Starlink has launched over 7,000 satellites since 2019, provides coverage in about 130 countries, had more than 4 million subscribers by late 2024, and offers 50–200 Mbps to rural homes with a pizza-box–sized dish. OneWeb has 618 active LEO satellites with global coverage achieved in early 2023, merged with Europe’s Eutelsat in 2022, and now focuses on enterprise and government backhaul rather than consumer services. ViaSat-3 consists of three GEO high-throughput satellites launched in

3 June 2025

Innovation · Remote Areas · Rural Connectivity · Satellite Internet · Technology

Battle for the Final Frontier: Starlink vs OneWeb vs Kuiper vs Telesat Lightspeed

Starlink has launched over 8,000 satellites since 2019, serves 125 countries, and by April 2025 reached the 250th dedicated Starlink launch, establishing SpaceX’s network as the largest in orbit. OneWeb, founded in 2014, began Gen1 launches in 2019 with 618 of 648 satellites deployed by March 2023, filed for Chapter 11 in 2020, was rescued by a UK/India $1 billion bailout, and merged with Eutelsat in September 2023. Project Kuiper, unveiled in 2019, has FCC approval for 3,236 satellites, started production with 27 satellites launched in April 2025 on an Atlas V, uses three shells at 590–630 km with inclinations

3 June 2025

Broadband · NASDAQ:AMZN · OneWeb · Satellite Internet · Space Technology · Starlink

Cambodia’s Internet Boom or Digital Doom? Inside the Kingdom’s Connected Revolution

Cambodia has over 22 million cellular subscriptions in a population of about 17 million, yielding a mobile penetration of roughly 131.5% due to multiple SIM ownership. As of early 2023, fixed internet subscriptions were about 310,000 nationwide, underscoring a mobile-first connectivity pattern. Cambodia’s first submarine cable, the Malaysia-Cambodia-Thailand link, landed in 2017, and a Hong Kong–Sihanoukville upgrade planned for 2024 will add 640 km of undersea fiber within Cambodian territory. The core backbone is operated by Telecom Cambodia, Viettel/Metfone, and CFOCN, with 38 licensed ISPs and five fiber-infrastructure operators reported in 2023. In early 2023 about 11.37 million Cambodians were

3 June 2025

Cambodia · Digital Revolution · Internet · Society · Technology

Why Starlink Keeps Hitting Red Tape Around the World

In May 2023 the U.S. FCC sided with Starlink over proposed uses of the 12.2–12.7 GHz band, preserving it for satellite services and preventing two-way 5G interference. In August 2022 the FCC denied Starlink’s $885 million Rural Digital Opportunity Fund subsidy due to performance concerns and high equipment costs, including a roughly $600 dish. By late 2024 Starlink had deployed about 7,000 satellites and controlled nearly two-thirds of all active satellites in orbit, signaling its regulatory and market prominence. France’s Conseil d’État annulled Arcep’s Starlink frequency license in April 2022 for lack of a required public consultation, leading to a

3 June 2025

Global Policy · Internet · NYSE:BHARTIARTL · Regulation · Satellites · Starlink

No Signal? No Problem – Starlink’s Direct-to-Cell Satellites Are Eliminating Dead Zones

August 2022: SpaceX and T-Mobile announced a partnership to provide direct-to-cell connectivity via Starlink satellites, with texting expected in 2023–24 and voice/data thereafter. January 2024: SpaceX achieved the first SMS directly via satellite, enabling a two-way text conversation between ordinary smartphones relayed entirely through space after the first batch of D2C-equipped satellites launched. Gen2 Starlink satellites carry the Direct-to-Cell payload, and the smaller V2 Mini satellites launched on Falcon 9 in 2023–24 were equipped to support these tests. By late 2024, more than 400 Starlink satellites had Direct-to-Cell capability, enabling voice calls, video calls, and IoT tests such as Cat-1

3 June 2025

Connectivity · Innovation · Mobile Technology · Satellites · Starlink

Starlink’s Sky Grab: How SpaceX Is Quietly Rewiring the Global Internet Game

Starlink launched its first batch of 60 satellites in 2019, and by late 2024 the constellation numbered nearly 7,000 satellites in low-Earth orbit. In 2022 Starlink introduced laser inter-satellite links, enabling data to hop between satellites and extending coverage to oceans, polar regions, and remote locales. By mid-2023 Starlink declared global coverage aside from regulatory holdouts, with service reaching Arctic areas and mid-ocean shipping lanes. By early 2024 Starlink was legally available in about 70 countries. Starlink’s user base grew from 1 million by end-2022 to over 4.6 million by end-2024, with more than 5 million users expected by early

3 June 2025

Global Connectivity · Internet · Satellites · SpaceX · Starlink

Inside Burundi’s Digital Struggle: The Truth About Internet Access and the Satellite Solution

As of January 2025, Burundi had about 1.78 million internet users, roughly 12.5% of ~14 million people, leaving about 88–90% offline. About 99.6% of internet subscriptions are mobile broadband, while fixed broadband is virtually nonexistent with ~0.3% of homes wired and only about 3,000 fixed broadband subscriptions in 2023. 4G coverage reached about 32% of the population in 2023, 3G about 53%, while 2G covers around 97%, leaving many rural areas without true internet. The rural population accounts for about 84% of Burundians, and the government’s Universal Service Fund is rolling out 4G to 178 rural communities, aiming to reach

2 June 2025

Africa · Digital Access · Internet · Satellites · Technology